Sid Otton, who retired this season as Tumwater High School’s head football coach, was named the Seahawks High School Coach of the Year for the state of Washington by the Seattle Seahawks and UnitedHealthcare.
Otton was honored prior to the Seahawks’ December 15 game against the Los Angeles Rams at CenturyLink Field and will receive a $2,000 cash grant. He is the Seahawks nomination for the Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year award.
During the 2016 season – Otton’s 43rd at the helm of the Thunderbirds – Tumwater finished the year with a record of 10-2 and captured the 2A Evergreen Conference championship for a seventh consecutive year before losing in the state quarterfinals to eventual titlist Archbishop Murphy.
Key wins this season for the T-Birds included victories over 2A South Puget League champion Franklin Pierce (77-42), 3A programs Bellevue (15-13) and Union (27-20), cross-town rival Black Hills (31-6) and W.F. West, which Otton’s crew dismantled, 42-0, in the regular season finale to claim the conference crown.
Otton began his career in Coupeville in 1967 then made a stop in Colfax before finally settling into Tumwater in 1974. He finished his run as the state’s all-time leader in wins, posting a career coaching record of 394-131.
The bulk of those nearly 400 victories came while he was wearing kelly green and gold as he guided the T-Birds to a record of 361-112 during his 43-year tenure at Tumwater.
He led the T-Birds to five state titles, the first coming in 1987 when Tumwater was in the 3A classification. Additional state championships came in 1989 (3A), 1990 (3A), 1993 (4A) and 2010 (2A), leaving Tumwater as the only high school in the state to win football state titles in the three largest classifications.
Each week during the past high school football season, the Washington State Football Coaches Association selected two high school football coaches as the Coach of the Week winners. Each recipient received a $500 grant from the Seattle Seahawks and the NFL Youth Football Fund for their football program.
The award was distributed through Week 10 of the football season with all 20 weekly recipients being nominated for coach of the year.
Otton was selected as the Seattle Seahawks High School Coach of the Week program during Week 3 after his T-Birds went on the road and knocked off 3A powerhouse Bellevue in a non-league clash.
Tumwater sealed the upset win over the Wolverines when Otton’s grandson, Cade Otton, who has committed to the University of Washington, hauled in a 26-yard Hail Mary from quarterback Noah Andrews on the game’s final play.
Coincidentally, Otton shared coach of the week honors that week with Olympia’s Bill Beattie, who in 1977 became the first Tumwater player to earn all-state honors under Otton’s watch.
“I can honestly say, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it wasn’t for Sid,” said Beattie in a previous ThurstonTalk article by Gail Wood. Beattie has coached the Bears since 1994 and is one of several former players who Otton coached who also went into the profession. “Sid didn’t make me feel I was this loser who didn’t belong out there. He made me feel like I belonged.”
Otton has since coached more than 40 additional players who were all-state selections, including his son, Brad, in 1989, and grandson Cade the past two seasons.
“He had such an impact on my life,” said longtime Shelton coach and former T-Bird player Matt Hinkle in Wood’s article. “He’s a big reason why I went into coaching. You see what he did and how he shaped lives, and you think that’s something you’d like to do.”
In addition to the thousands of student athletes Otton coached during his five decades on the sidelines, he also coached oldest son Tim, a current T-Bird assistant coach, and grandson Jayden Croft during his tenure at Tumwater.
“I am very proud of him for who he is and all he has accomplished,” Marjean Otton said in Wood’s article. “But I have to say, above all, his greatest accomplishments are that of being the best husband, father and grandfather. He is a tremendous example to us all.”
